Senior managers from the Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) are being helped in developing their careers through a new programme launched with international law firm Osborne Clarke.
The firm, which employs more than 700 people in its Bristol office, is working in partnership with the Positive Transformation Group (PTG), which has enabled it to transfer £70,000 in unused apprenticeship levies to the RSBC. 
This will allow 10 senior managers at the charity to upskill through a Level 5 Management apprenticeship.
While the funding was a crucial first step, the programme was also created with a deeper and more substantial partnership in mind.
The RSBC senior managers have been given access to a range of mentors at Osborne Clarke, enabling them to seek additional support through their apprenticeship and gather valuable feedback for their programme.
RSBC people and facilities director Eileen Harding said: “With reduced training budgets due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a fundraising landscape taking a little more time to return to normal, the levy transfer has been crucial for RSBC.”
“This funding is providing our managers with an opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have had to grow and expand their skills and, ultimately, to better support blind and partially sighted children and young people, and their families.”
PTG’s transfer of levy service has enabled collaboration through linking up with the MentorXchange platform.
Osborne Clarke head of inclusion and corporate responsibility Bola Gibson, pictured, said: “It is really important to us that the programme enables our people to take part in the journey with the RSBC mentees, actively engaging in the apprenticeship programme.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for our people to really engage with our responsible business agenda while growing their mentoring and personal development skills.”
PTG founder Dan Brown said, crucially, Osborne Clarke’s programme involved active gifting in addition to the levy funding – a sign of its commitment to seeing the success of these apprentices through from start to finish.
“The mentoring supports mentees through the programme and is also used as evidence required to complete the apprenticeship standard,” he said.
Zahra Khan, pictured, a senior IT projects manager and apprentice mentor at Osborne Clarke, said while the programme had only just launched, she could already feel it was such a rewarding opportunity for me.
“It’s great to step outside my day job and support someone else’s career development while building on skills such as active listening, facilitation and knowledge sharing,” she added.
The initiative underpins Osborne Clarke’s strategy of being a responsible and ethical business and forms part of its Osborne Clarke For Good framework – the firm’s way of ensuring it is a good corporate citizen, a good employer and a good business.
